Moony
by AnotherGirlWithAStory
Summary: It had been a full year since he saw the child. Remus assumed that Harry didn't know who he was. And he didn't know what to think about that. Then the boy smiled. His emerald eyes glimmered and he reached his arms forward as he spoke the word that simultaneously broke Remus heart and fixed it. "Moony."


**Title** : Moony

 **Characters** : Remus Lupin, Harry Potter, Petunia Evans Dursley, Dudley Dursley, James Potter & Lily Evans Potter.

 **AN** : Can be seen as connected to _Not Anymore_ and _The Other White Sheep_.

 **Word Count** : 2, 117

* * *

 _October 1982_

Remus Lupin felt like the chameleons he used to have as pets when he was a child as he walked through the crowded street of Godric's Hollow. It didn't require much of an effort to blend in amongst the people. None of them had ever seen him before and the risk of Remus being recognized was lessened by the fact that he wore a great big beige coat with a collar that covered almost his entire face and a hate to hide what the collar didn't.

Both items of clothing had once belonged to his father and as a child, when he wanted to become a spy, Remus had proclaimed that he was going to use these clothes for whenever he needed to not be seen by whoever he was following. He assumed following people was common when you worked as a spy. His friends had been insanely amused by the fact that the clothes didn't fit his tiny little body.

* * *

James and Sirius laughed at the sight of him. He was a skinny child attempting to get into his father's beige coat and the strangely shaped hat. Both boys sat on his bed with big tears running down their cheeks as they were unable to control themselves with a sight like that in front of them.

"It doesn't look that bad." Remus said defensively.

Sirius shook his head and wiped the last few tears from his cheeks as he laughed a few more times. "Absolutely not. It could be a lot worse."

"You may grow into it." James added sounding serious. "When you're twenty-two or something."

* * *

He walked slowly down the road just a few meters behind a blond woman with defined cheek bones, green eyes and blond hair kept together in a braid that ended just under her shoulders. She walked slowly and would have to stop every now and again when one of the two boys did. One of them were blond like the woman with the same high cheek bones and blue eyes. The other, the one that caught Remus attention, had raven-coloured hair and green eyes. Every now and again he would squint and stumble but the moment his hands hit the ground the other boy was next to him offering him a hand.

The sight of the squinting boy made Remus laugh as it forced him to think back on a moment that would haunt James Potter during his short life. When Lily Evans had told him that she would date him if he didn't wear glasses everyone knew that she didn't mean it. James probably did too but that didn't stop him from stubbornly refusing to wear his glasses for an entire day. An act he tried to brush away by stating, every time it came up, that he was twelve years old.

* * *

"James just listen to us and put your glasses on." Remus said with a nagging voice as he watched his friend almost spill juice over himself again. "Lily didn't mean it when she said that she would date you if you stopped wearing glasses."

Sirius snickered at the sight in front of him. James squinted at everything and had to move it back and forth so that he could look at it from different distances before giving up and asking Remus what it was.

"You don't know that Moony." James replied as juice landed on his shirt. He cursed under his breath. "It may work."

Remus sighed deeply. "Tell him that he's wrong Sirius."

"He's not going to listen." Sirius said and rolled his eyes when he saw the look of determination on Remus face. "Prongs it's not going to work. Just put the glasses back on and join the land of the seeing."

"I'm not going to listen." James replied with an amused tone in his voice.

Sirius shrugged and pointed at James as if to say; I told you so.

* * *

He wasn't supposed to be there. Remus wasn't supposed to know the address of Harry James Potter at all. But once the information by accident landed in his lap there was nothing stopping him from going there; not even the fact that the full moon was only one day away. And Remus could feel it. That morning he had been sure that he wasn't going to be able to keep his eyes open for more than a few hours. There was nothing he desired more when the alarm rang than to stay in bed and contemplate how in the name of everything that was holy he had ended up in the so called flat he rented in London.

But by some miracle he ended up at the exactly right place at the right time.

He sat bent over a cup of tea making a bad attempt at reading the newspaper when he overheard someone mentioning a familiar surname.

"Yeah, the Potter kid is apparently back in Godric's Hollow." The clinking of cups. There was no missing the excited tone in the man's voice. "Dumbledore's not happy about it. I heard he tried to convince the woman to go back to Private Drive but she refused to. Apparently, he had no other choice but to let them stay there. It's remarkable isn't it? This muggle refused to do as Albus Dumbledore told her."

The excitement became even clearer when he, whoever it was, spoke about Dumbledore. The idea that someone would refuse to listen to him was apparently both shocking and insanely amusing at the same time. Remus gave the newspaper a one-sided smile as he completely ignored the written text and focused on listening to the couple sitting by the table in front of him. They were probably whispering but that didn't stop him from hearing every word they spoke.

The other person let out an oh. "Who knew the sister had such backbone. I could never have guessed. What's her name again?"

"Petunia Dur… no, Evans. She's in the process of a nasty divorce. Her husband was apparently quite the monster. Her own son doesn't want to be called by his first name anymore because of him…"

Remus didn't stick around long enough to hear why Petunia's son didn't want to be called by his first name nor to hear them gossip about what this husband had done that made him into such a monster. Instead the pain was almost forgotten when he apparated directly onto the busy street of Godric's Hollow. He had no plans on what he was supposed to be doing. He could almost hear the voices of James and Sirius in his head telling him how stupid that was. Some things, such as a well-executed prank, could not be performed spontaneously without any plans what so ever.

Remus told himself what Sirius and James had told him so many times when their plans against all odds didn't go as they thought; everything would work itself out somehow.

* * *

Remus stood behind the two boys, looking over their shoulders, and held his breath as he prayed that they wouldn't be caught by Filch. Again. "This was such a bad idea."

James shook his head. "It was an excellent plan."

"Excellent plan you say." Remus rolled his eyes in the dark. "Well if this is such an excellent plan why are we still standing around her praying to Merlin that we don't get caught. Admit it, this is not an excellent plan."

Sirius nodded. "He may be right James."

"Yeah, he may be right." James replied and though Remus couldn't see his face he could still hear the smile on James face when he spoke next. "Don't worry Moony, everything will work itself out somehow."

* * *

Petunia showed up sometimes after twelve. In all honesty, Remus didn't know that it was her. But there was no denying who the raven-haired boy walking in front of her was. He was a spitting image of his father but with his mother's eyes. Remus let out a whining sound and tilted his head to the side. Pain struck him fast and merciless straight into the heart. This emotional hurt was worse than any pain the full moon brought him every month. Because this pain was because he knew that he would never see his best friend again and his best friend would never see his son grow up. Harry James Potter reminded him of everything he had lost and the fact that the world was now a darker place compared to before.

* * *

Remus stared at his own reflection in the mirror. He knew in the back of his mind that the man looking back at him was himself. And yet it didn't feel like it was. Because that man in front of him had no emotions in his blue eyes and the scars on his face weren't the result of another full moon. No claws had caused the red marks to appear but human nails.

A sob wrecked his body and he forced himself to look down at the newspaper in front of him. The picture on the front page looked just like it had the last time he forced himself to look at it. A broken house. A big headline about Voldemort's disappearance. And then in smaller writing the mentioning of two deaths and one survival.

James and Lily Potter had died. Remus felt his heart break inside of his chest and he fell to the ground as if his body no longer had the strength to carry itself. He leande his back forward and his face turned into a mask of pain as inhuman cries of pain escaped the parted lips. There was no describing the pain.

This was worse than any full moon, Remus thought. The realisation that he would never see Lily's red hair again or talk to her again. He would never be able to watch her remarkable kindness and astonishing intelligence in action. He would never watch the bravery that made James Potter different from other people. He would never see him run his fingers through his hair, hear another joke or feel the comforting sensation that James' hugs gave his broken body. He was all alone; just like they said that he would never be. In less than twenty-four hours Remus Lupin had lost not his friends but his entire family.

In that moment, in that shoebox of a flat, Remus Lupin thought that he was going to die; and he wouldn't mind if he did.

* * *

Remus followed her. This petite woman whose only resemblance to Lily was the green eyes. Other than that, she looked nothing like her redheaded sister.

"No boys, we're going this way today." Petunia opened the gate that led into the cemetery.

The boys walked in before her but soon enough ended up behind her as Petunia walked down a path that eventually led her to stop in front of two familiar tombstones.

"You take this flower…" Petunia gave Harry a flower and offered the next one to her son. "And you take that flower and put it on the ground in front of this stone."

They both did as they were told and Remus thought based on the tone of her voice that he could hear a smile on her face. A frown appeared on his face. This woman was nothing like Lily had described her. Based on what he had seen Petunia Evans appeared to be the kind of woman he felt comfortable leaving Harry with. She was the kind of woman who would do what her sister wanted her to. She would to the best of her abilities keep Harry safe from the horrors of the world that had struck him too early.

Remus allowed the coat to fall further down and he pushed the hat aside. He couldn't stand in front of Lily and James as anyone else but himself. Anything else was unimaginable. He felt his heart lighten in spite of the burning pain that scorched his body from the inside; all due to the sight of Harry looking as happy as he possibly could be. Remus was about to turn around and leave when the raven-haired boy turned around. The boy squinted at him for a few seconds. Petunia and her son was unaware of what was happening and Remus stood silently, holding his breath, as he waited for something.

It had been a full year since he saw the child. Remus assumed that Harry didn't know who he was. And he didn't know what to think about that. Then the boy smiled. His emerald eyes glimmered and he reached his arms forward as he spoke the word that simultaneously broke Remus heart and fixed it.

" _Moony."_

 **The end**


End file.
